Pierce Retires, Huber Advances

N E W Y O R K, Sept. 4

French Open champion Mary Pierce pulled out of
the U.S. Open on Monday, unable to overcome recurring pain from a
shoulder injury that sidelined her most of the summer.

Pierce, seeded No. 4, asked for a medical timeout trailing 5-4
in the first set against No. 10 Anke Huber. After the trainer
massaged her right shoulder, she returned to center court to serve.
But she double-faulted on set point, giving Huber the set, 6-4.

Pierce immediately walked to the chair and retired from the
match.

“The day before yesterday, after my match with Lisa Raymond, I
was 100 percent,” Pierce said. “In doubles it got sore and it was
sore today. Every serve I hit it got worse.”

Pierce won the French Open in June, beating Monica Seles,
Martina Hingis and Conchita Martinez in the last three matches.
Since then, she has played just two matches, losing in the second
round at Wimbledon before taking the rest of the summer off because
of an irritated rotator cuff.

“I saw it right in the first service game,” Huber said. “It’s
hard to play when you see her not 100 percent.”

A Twi-Night Five-Setter

Play began today in hot, muggy conditions similar to Sunday
when two rain delays stretched matches well into the night. The
most compelling match came when No. 3 Magnus Norman finished on his
knees, barely surviving a marathon in which he beat Max Mirnyi 3-6,
4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 7-6 (9).

From the time the first ball was struck to the final point in
the fifth-set tiebreaker, Mirnyi and Norman spent 4 hours, 6
minutes on the court throwing haymakers at one another, and another
four hours waiting for the weather to clear.

It was compelling tennis, perhaps the first match that reached
that level in this year’s final Grand Slam event.

“It was unbelievable. I have no words for it,” said an
exhausted Norman, who lost the first two sets. “I got through,
that’s the important thing. I’m just happy I won.”

Teenage Rivalry

Earlier in the evening, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati faced
off in a resumption of what many thought might have been one of the
great rivalries in women’s tennis if off-court problems had not
interrupted their careers.

So much has happened to them since their magical semifinal at
the Open in 1991. But for one night, at least, Seles took Capriati
back in time, defeating her 6-3, 6-4.

Nine years ago, they were kids—Capriati 15 and Seles 17—and
viewed as the future of American women’s tennis. Seles captured a
third-set tiebreaker that day and went on to win the championship,
beating Martina Navratilova.

“I really don’t think about that much anymore,” Capriati said.
“I think it’s kind of annoying a little bit, to tell you the
truth.”

Seles recalls it more warmly.

“I think it’s the first time in women’s tennis you had such
hard hitters,” she said. “It changed the face of women’s
tennis.”

On an unpleasant night that left them both drenched, there were
few reminders of the tennis they once played at center court.

“She came out really strong,” Capriati said, “just from the
first ball. She was just hitting them full speed. She served really
well. It was tough for me to break every time. That put a little
more pressure on my serve.

“I think it was pretty close. We had a lot of close games
there. It could have gone either way.”

A year ago, they played in the round of 16. After Capriati lost,
she finished the day in tears, trying to bury her troubled past.